How to Get Gmail to Make Emoticons

Face it they are cute, yet practical. There are times you don’t want to be bothered by having to type out “Right now I feel like rolling around on the floor laughing in response to the zany comment you just made”. There’s an emoticon or a cute little animated face for that feeling along with many others, and it just makes life easier. Getting Gmail to animate or add the emoticons you want is one trick you shouldn’t pass up perfecting. What this means is Gmail can do the same animation tricks you get from other chats, there are just a few steps you need to go through to set it up.

Sign in to your Gmail account. If you don’t have a Gmail account yet setting this up is easy and your contacts can be moved over in a straightforward manner. Once you are in your Gmail account just select Settings from the options in the upper right corner. In the setting's box you will see options for Chat, and you need to select this option. This takes you to the Chat controls box. Second from the bottom you will see Emoticons. There are two buttons. One button says

“Emoticons on- When an emoticon is sent it will automatically animate”

or

“Emoticons off”

Choose Emoticons on. Save your changes by selecting the Save Changes button. Once everything is saved then back out to the Gmail main page.

Find a friend who is available to chat with, and who won’t mind being a test subject. Once you are in chat with this person send them a simple emoticon like or and hit enter. Give it a few seconds to appear on your friend’s screen. On your side once you hit enter you should see the Emoticon become a ‘real’ one and appear as animated.

You can find more emoticons by using Gmail. Go to Google.com and look at the What’s New Page. Scroll down to the “Emoticons-they’re not just for chat anymore” and choose learn more. Here you will find the Add to Toolbar option button. Select this and it will add a new toolbar when you sign in to your Gmail account. Using this option you only have to click on the Emoticon button of the tool bar to add emoticons. It will bring up a box from which you can make your choice of which emoticon to use. You will need to be in rich formatting mode to see the emoticon button on the toolbar.

Using emoticons in chat comes in handy when you are in a big hurry or when you are in a very causal mood. If you can’t speak face to face then communication can be a little stilted, but these fun faces with their animated antics can give you the same experience as a face to face conversation. You can communicate faster and show a sense of humor with the emoticons. They also add a splash of color to your chat.

Photo Credits: Todd Huffman

Originally posted 2010-06-01 03:51:19.

This post involves:

emoticon, emoticons, gmail, google, google talk

... and focuses on:

Computer Tips, Internet and Email

Posted by How To Computer on January 30, 2012 in Computer Tips, Internet and Email. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.